The tattered Darkness tore itself apart, imploded and vanished. The howling ceased. The bird, one of its wings injured, turned and flew with difficulty back to the hills.
She heard a huge cheer from down on the ground and Sarina realised she was holding the broom and hovering over an area of the township near the main Square. She peered down and saw a group of men, clapping, pointing and looking up at her.
Suddenly self-conscious, she remembered she was still in her pyjamas and holding a large broom dripping orange paint.
“Well,” she muttered, “that’s my good deed—or dream—done for the day.” She faced the men from high above and bowed, raising another big cheer.
Feeling her cheeks flush, she rose up into the air, still clutching the broom, and flew off over the tree tops.
~~~
Sarina woke up just before the alarm, feeling invigorated, and stretched her arms over her head and yawned. She was holding something in her hand. She looked at her right hand which was holding a brush that belonged to a dustpan usually kept in the kitchen.
She looked down from her bed to the floor.
“Oh dear me, what a mess.” She grimaced at the thought of explaining it to her mother.
The lid of the largest can of her orange paint was upturned near the door, and on the floor between her bed and the door, taking up most of the space, was a large, painted orange bird.
Thank goodness her room had tiles and not carpet. Sarina surveyed the scene, deep in thought. What on earth was happening to her?
~~~
Makthryg rubbed his shoulder. The phantom pain he felt could only mean one thing. Valkrog had been injured. But by who? Who was powerful enough to combat his creation? Not the townsmen, and in any case, if they had acquired power such as this, with their women and children held hostage, they wouldn’t risk it. Or had the Darkness turned on the bird? He would find out soon enough and deal with it, even if Valkrog couldn’t.
~~~
Valkrog stumbled through the door into the hall. Makthryg was waiting for him, arms folded. “Well?”
“Your Greatness, I have failed you.” The creature spoke through pain, clutching his shoulder.
“I did warn you, Valkrog. The Darkness is volatile and does not take lightly to misuse.” Makthryg spoke softly, despite his anger. Valkrog’s injuries were penalty enough.
The bird-man shook his head and looked down. “No Master, it was not the Darkness that failed me. I was able to control it.” He looked up at Makthryg. “But I fear there is another player we did not plan for. An Orange Witch who was able to counter my power, and better it. She attacked the Darkness and it is no more, my Lord.”
Makthryg motioned Valkrog to follow him back into the large hall and to the table. He sat facing the wounded creature, ignoring the deep ache in his own shoulder.
“Then we must make haste and capture the boy as soon as possible before they gain any ground. Tell me of the new enemy and have your injuries attended to. And then prepare the men for the offensive.”
Valkrog leaned forward, weak from the fight, and recounted his altercation with the Orange Witch and the burning fire.
~ 5 ~
Assessment
Sarina arrived at school unusually early, clutching a large envelope. She had skipped to school, rather than her usual walk, buoyed by having been such a hero in her dream. She waited in the quadrangle for Georgia to arrive and thought about her dream again. Were these dreams and premonitions recurring for a reason? She was reasonably sure she had managed to pacify her mother, who was perturbed by ‘yet another nightmare’ as she had put it, but Sarina told her proudly that she had been the heroine in this one.
“Yes, Sarina, but what about all this?” Her face was tight with worry as she pointed at the scrambled orange mess on the floor, where Sarina had messed up the bird-like shape when she heard her mother coming up the stairs.
She would never lie to her mother, but Sarina was worried that having more weird dream-painting and nightmares might push her mother into calling that horrible Dr Timms again. With that threat and her poor performance in maths and science, she was treading a fine line.
“It’s OK, mum,” she said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible, “I must have kicked it over accidentally in my sleep. I’ll clean it up before I leave for school.”
She hadn’t been completely sure her mother was convinced the mess was an accident.
A movement near the school fence caught her eye and Sarina saw Georgia coming through the gate. “Hey, Georgy, you’ll never guess what!” she called across the quadrangle.
“What’s up with the big grin?” Georgia called back. She walked up and put her bag down next to Sarina’s. “You’re full of energy this morning. Did you have a pile of sugary pancakes for breakfast or something? “
Sarina hugged her friend. “Nothing to do with pancakes. This morning I woke up feeling really good for once. I had this amazing dream where I was some kind of supergirl, defeating the monster and saving the village.”
“Wow!” Georgia looked surprised. “I guess that makes a change from the nightmares you’ve been having recently.”
“It sure does.” Sarina leaned towards her friend and lowered her voice. “The strange thing is, this dream was set in exactly the same place as the nightmares.” She raised her eyebrows and looked at Georgia. “What do you think about that then?”
“I’d say it means you must be finally conquering your demons, don’t you think?” Georgia laughed and looked down at Sarina’s hand. “What’s in the envelope?”
“I felt so good this morning I decided to get my entry in.” She pouted. “At last. It took me ages to choose my favourite pieces to submit.”
“That’s brilliant! You must be really proud. What a super-positive way to start the day. Especially since today is the first maths assessment.”
Sarina’s jaw dropped. She could feel the blood draining from her face.
“Sarina, what’s the matter?” Georgia frowned, a concerned look on her face. “Don’t tell me you—”
“Forgot?” Sarina said slowly. “I thought it was next week. Oh rats, what am I going to do, I will never pass now. So much for being a swashbuckling monster fighter.”
“Hey, Sarina, don’t worry,” Georgia said, and bent down to pick up both their bags. “Let’s go in and get your positive attitude back. And then I think some, umm, high speed cramming is in order.” She flashed Sarina a reassuring grin. “Remember, there is a supergirl inside you somewhere!”
Inside the school and walking down the corridor, Sarina wasn’t sure she shared Georgia’s confidence. These two maths tests were crucial—and if she failed, it would mean a lengthy stint away from school … away from Georgia … away from art—and as the memory of the Principal’s threat came flooding back, she realised in despair it would mean missing the National Young Artists Breakthrough Competition. She could feel the tears welling up and looked away.
How could she have been so stupid? And for such an important occasion! Curse these nightmares!
“Let’s duck in here.” Georgia took her arm and led them both into an empty classroom. Georgia sat down and patted the seat next to her. “Alright best friend,” she smiled up at Sarina, “let me do my best to get you ready.”
“What about you, Georgy? Don't you need to do some last minute revising?”
“Don’t worry about me, I actually did do a lot of work for this one—for once.”
They worked until the bell rang, and stood to leave.
“Wait,” Sarina said, holding her friend back, “Georgy, I want to thank you. No matter what happens to me, you’ll always be my best friend, OK?”
“What are you talking about? You make it sound like you’re going off to war!” Georgia turned to her friend. “You’ll be fine. We’ll still have a bit of time after morning tea, the assessment isn’t until the last session before lunch. Or did you forget that too? Come on, let’s go.”
Going off to war? Famo
us last words. She sighed. Oh Georgy-girl, you don’t know the half of it. Going off to war might be a better description of the way she felt. She followed her friend out to the corridor.
The rest of the morning passed in a dull haze, though Georgia valiantly tried to keep Sarina positive. “You can do it, Sarina!” she said at the morning tea break as she helped Sarina do her best to cram. But the numbers and figures still swam in her head, no matter what she did, and cramming only made it worse.
Eventually the last session before lunch came around and they joined the line-up waiting to go into the classroom. Most of the students were quiet and tense, a few had nervous giggles.
“So, is Picasso 100% ready to come top of the class then?”
Sarina turned around in dismay to see Nathan’s smug grin as he looked at the two girls.
“What?” he said in mock surprise, “don’t you like maths or something?”
But before Sarina could retort with a mega-smart reply, the double doors opened and Old Smythe, the Head of the Maths Department, appeared.
“Quiet please. No more talking. Please enter in an orderly fashion and place your bags at the back of the room. You may take only your pencil, blank paper and calculator to your desks.”
He stepped back from the door and gestured for everyone to enter.
Sarina glanced at Nathan on the way in and caught him looking back at her in amusement. She quickly turned away. Ughhh. That would be one face she wouldn’t miss if she had to leave the school—then she shook herself. What was she thinking? Be positive and everything will work out. She walked away to organise her things.
The test finished and the bell rang for lunch. Her head was in such a muddle after the test that she had no idea whether she’d done well enough to scrape through or not. No choice really but to hope for the best. She remembered the envelope. She’d been in such high spirits that morning that she had organised her entry for the Young Artists Competition. She’d taken a few weeks to make her mind up about which of her favourite pieces to submit, but now it was done.
Handing her entry in today would definitely be a great way to cheer herself up. In fact, why not do it right now, during the lunch break.
Sarina walked up to the school office student service window with the envelope in her hand and pressed the buzzer.
The glass window slid open and a familiar, jovial face leaned out and smiled the instant she saw Sarina. “Why Sarina! How lovely to see you dear. To what do I owe the pleasure?”
Sarina laughed. “Thanks, Mrs Parker, I um …” she hesitated.
“Do go on, my dear, nothing to be shy about around me, surely you know that by now. It must be something important if you’ve come all the way to the office. Let me guess, does it have something to do with that envelope you are hiding from everyone?”
Sarina looked down and realised she was holding the envelope to her chest so no one could see what was written on it. “Yes. To be honest I don’t know why this one is making me more nervous, but—oh here you go,” and she thrust the envelope at Mrs Parker, who flipped it over and broadened her smile.
“Ah. Mrs Gratten was telling me she was hoping you would enter this.” She leaned out of the window, looked up and down the corridor and whispered. “Actually we had a little chat over a cup of tea and we are both positive you will win.” Her smile widened impossibly and she straightened, “Nothing to be nervous about, my dear. We all wish we could paint like you, Sarina,” and she winked. “I’ll make sure this gets to the right place for you, don’t you worry, it’ll be a breeze.”
“Thanks, Mrs Parker.” Sarina wasn’t at all sure it would be anything like a breeze—or that she’d even be allowed to enter—with all the pressure on her to perform better at maths and science, but she flashed a brief smile and turned to leave. The corridor was blocked by two men walking up to the office. She groaned. One of them was the Principal, the other was a well-built, muscular man, who she hadn’t seen at the school before.
The bigger man was talking to the Principal. “I think it will be a fascinating project for your school to be involved with, Forrester. There is no doubt in my mind that today’s children have a mental ability way beyond what the science fiction writers of yesteryear envisaged. You must visit our new facilities. The new student labs alone are really quite extraordinary. It’s a joy to watch such gifted young people stretching our ideas of what is possible, and all you have to do is nominate suitable students and I’ll do the rest. It will certainly help your school’s already excellent standing as one that is consistently producing high-achievers.”
The Principal nodded. “Yes, yes, I’m sure you are right, Kingsley, though goodness knows where you get the funding. I’ve seen your shiny new building, from the outside only of course,”—he hesitated for a moment—“but I must admit I can already think of several outstanding performers who would possibly meet your criteria—” He stopped when he saw Sarina and she thought she detected a twitch of annoyance in his expression.
The other man had stopped and was smiling at Sarina. “And you would be?” He held his hand out.
Sarina shook his hand, unsure of what to say. “Um, Sarina Metcalfe, sir.”
The glass window slid open and Mrs Parker leaned out, beaming. “Sarina is one of our high-achievers, Mr Harrison. She’s our grandmaster artist-in-residence you know.”
The man raised his eyebrows. “Oh really? How splendid. Perhaps you would consider joining our project then? We are especially short on artists and those with a creative passion. The real dreamers.”
Sarina opened her mouth to reply, but Mr Forrester, who was glaring at her from behind the man, got in first.
“I believe Miss Metcalfe will be quite short of time owing to another project she has recently committed to, so I’m afraid that won’t be possible.”
“Shame,” the man said, still looking at Sarina. “Shame indeed. Perhaps another time then?”
Sarina nodded. He had friendly eyes. “Yes, thank you, if there is another chance sometime—” she glanced at Mr Forrester who looked impatient to be rid of her. “I must run, class is starting soon.” She smiled at the man as he stood back to let her pass.
He called after her down the corridor. “Remember to keep your dreams alive!”
Right now, she was pretty sure that her dreams were the last thing she needed to keep alive.
After dinner that night and resisting a barrage of questions from her mother about her day at school, Sarina knew she needed sleep more than anything.
“Mum, I’ll be OK, honestly.”
Her mother looked doubtful and worried. Perhaps her mother was always going to look doubtful and worried for her entire life, but Sarina dismissed the thought. A genetically inherited tendency for doubt and worry was not what she needed right now.
“Mum, I’m really tired, is it OK if I go to bed? Maybe tomorrow we can talk about what’s been happening?”
Her mother softened and pulled Sarina close. “Sarina, I worry so much about you. You go on up and get a good night’s sleep, and let’s hope that there are no heroic dreams to get in the way of you getting some quality rest tonight.” She bent down and kissed the top of Sarina’s head. “Off you go, sweetheart,” and she released Sarina from her embrace.
Sarina headed upstairs, yawning. Mum had no idea. Maybe being a hero was exactly what she needed. Life just didn’t seem fair.
She stood at the entrance to her bedroom, looking longingly at the bed. Please, just one night of rest. Was it too much to ask?
~~~
She was standing in the middle of a large field of perfectly mowed grass, surrounded by beautiful trees, a clear blue sky and one or two fluffy white clouds to make the perfect day.
But she couldn’t move her arms, no matter how hard she wrenched them. They were stuck to her side. How odd.
She tested walking. Well that worked OK. She felt drawn to walk over to the gate. She didn’t know why, but it occurred to her that if she could get past the gate, sh
e might find a way to make her arms work again. She didn’t think that her arms being stuck was the slightest bit scary, just odd, but she was getting anxious about the rustling noises and movement in the trees that was only visible from the corner of her eye.
She tried looking directly at the trees, but there was nothing to see.
“Oh well.” Sarina sighed. “At least it’s a sunny day.” She continued walking stiffly towards the gate, arms pinned to her sides.
A movement in the sky caused her to look up and she scanned the sky for clues, seeing nothing. Wait! What was that popping out from behind a cloud?
She heard another rustling noise from behind her in the trees and she whirled around to try to catch sight of the culprit—and gasped at what she saw.
Giant, multi-coloured numbers were sliding out of the gaps between the trees and coming towards her.
Time to run.
She started running to the gate, with her arms still trapped by her side. While she was running, the grass began growing around her—fast enough for her to see. Very weird. The sky darkened and she looked up—and saw the reason why.
Massive magnets were falling out of the clouds, hovering in the air. They started to circle overhead.
“What?” She stopped and looked again. “Magnets in the sky? Giant coloured numbers in the woods? This is way too weird.” She looked back at the woods and saw that the giant numbers were now in their hundreds, and they were now advancing towards her with a lumbering, lopsided gait.
Sarina sprinted with a crazy, arms-pinned lope across the remaining part of the field. She dodged the grass, which was now at chin height, by thrashing it with her shoulders and threw herself over the gate. She heard what sounded like several hundred large magnets crashing into the earth behind her.
The Dreamer Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set Vol I - III: A Sci-Fi Parallel Universe Adventure (The Dreamer Chronicles - Science Fiction For Kids And Adults) Page 5
